When I went into the labour ward I was terrified as one of the midwives i had was the big, loud woman who looked like she was a footballer in a past life, even DH was petrified of her. But it actually turned out to be a good thing, she was brilliant. She was one of those, 'you can do better than that" people, which is what i wanted.

I also had another midwife, and the two of them were telling dirty jokes while i was having contractions and pushing. Dh said it scared him, as he thought they weren't taking things all that seriously.

When I was told that I needed the emergency c-section, she came to theatre with me, told me to squeeze the sh*t out of her hands if i needed to, then told DH that I had to be knocked out and he couldnt come in, but she would stay with me the whole time.

As they were prepping me to go to surgery, she told me that i should be proud of myself, because she was proud of me. The other midwife told me later that she had never heard her say this to anyone before. So i felt pretty special, even if they were telling fibs!!

Nic